Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, in a column posted Dec. 10 on ocregister.com and printed in The Register on Dec. 14 [“County needs lower pension costs”], presented two options for how he believes public employees can avoid financial disaster for the county: either scale back existing, ratified pension formulas, or don’t, and eventually face pay freezes and layoffs.

This comes within a week of the Board of Supervisors’ review of the 2010 Strategic Financial Plan, which is meant to provide a financial snapshot of the county. Though it is not a finalized budget ready to be voted on, the document asks staff to develop a salary and benefit cost-reduction plan to cut costs by up to $100 million during the next five years and enforce a hiring freeze that stops most hiring, with a few exceptions as required by state and federal mandates.

Moorlach suggests reverting to a previous pension formula, one that would provide reduced benefits to current county employees.

“Sometimes in life you have to go backward to move forward,” he writes. “This is a mindset that has to be adopted by the public employee unions in this state. Not doing so will only lead to the inevitable: massive layoffs, pay cuts and possible bankruptcy workout plans.”

Instead of resolving to move backward, wouldn’t it be better to move forward collectively?

Instead of asking working men and women to take a step back, why not join us in the fight to forge forward with the limited resources we have? Some in Washington, D.C., are listening, as are the folks at The Economist, who recently published information about our hybrid pension plan which proposes a defined-benefit plan with a voluntary defined-contribution plan and an employer match contribution. The hybrid plan includes a reduced pension and a defined contribution plan similar to a 401(k).

“The ball is in the unions’ court,” Moorlach writes. If that’s so, then we choose to collaboratively engage rather than forfeit. Instead of simply taking away from working families as a quick fix to a long-term problem, let’s work toward improving the situation for all working Americans.

“Giving up something that you have is a very difficult thing to do,” Moorlach writes. We’re with him on that point – but both sides must be willing to sacrifice. OCEA members have done just that by reforming the pension, retiree medical benefits and setting our salaries to the private sector.

We understand times are tough – nowhere is that felt more than in the wallets, and on the dinner tables, of the working class.

Everyone has been hit by this recession, and regardless of which side we’re on, we are all in this together.

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